Frozen Waters: Book 3: Hope
by Kenjiro Minami
Summary: Danny hasn't been the same since Cyril beat him up the day he had given me his promise. Every day with him is different, and every day with him breaks me further. Eventually I can't help but to wonder... Should I have never forgiven him that day at the food court?
1. Chapter 1

**THIRD BOOK! boo yah! XD**

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Danny was in and out of it for a few weeks. There were days when he seemed perfectly fine, not even registering the pain he was in his medicine was dosed so high because the pain alone would kill him while he was awake. Those were the good days, when he would smile and laugh along with me, or even just by himself as he tried to get me to laugh, too, saying that it would help him get better faster if he could hear me laugh instead of see me cry. He told me, on those days, that my smile and my laugh were better medicines than the spirits in the medical building could ever provide him, and that he'd be out of t he 're sooner if I kept smiling for him. He always smiled on those days, trying to encourage me to smile, too, and eventually, I did, unable to resist smiling along with Danny.

But then there was those days where he didn't even recognize me. I'd be sitting there, waiting for him to wake up, going off of only a couple hours of sleep myself, and when he did, he'd start to panic. He wouldn't know where he was, would always try to unhook himself from the medical equipment hooked up to him. He'd always sout and scream at me to leave, claiming that I was trying to hurt him, even though I'd only be sitting there, next to his bed, with tears brimming in my eyes. He didn't recognize me.

Every day I played a new role. I was either a complete stranger on those days, never seen before in his life. Or I could be an enemy, a half monster like him, sent to his room by Cyril to kill him. One day I could be his sister, or the next his friend. Some days I was even his best friend who met him at school and who hung out with him a lot at that diner just a ten minute walk from our high school. I don't know. I never knew. His mind always created fake memories for me on those days, those days he didn't remember who I was, the days he didn't remember a single day we had spent together. Or at least not correctly. He didnt remember a single one. And it made me cry more than usual on those days, because he couldn't even tell me he loved me on them.

Yesterday was one of those days. I remember clearly the panic in his deep blue eyes when he had seen the tubes snaking down from monitors and attaching to his arms and face. I remember him trying to pry them off unskillfully, adding more scratches to his skin when he pulled out the needles. I remember trying to get him to calm down, only to have his panicking blue eyes turn on me viciously, his panic being replaced by an uncontrollable anger.

"You," he had growled uncharacteristically at me when he had found his arms constrained, bound to the bed he was resting on because of what had happened last time his mind had forgotten everything.

I winced, waiting for that new role I knew I was going to get that day.

Danny sneered at me when I didn't respond. "What are you waiting for? Huh? Aren't you going to kill me? You've tortured me enough as it is today. What happened to your toys, huh? Did Cyril take them from you?"

So that was my role... to be the one Cyril sent to torture Danny. My most dreaded of all roles, because it always ended badly. He'd never let me leave the room till it was done, never let me try to explain to him the truth of who I was, only taking them as lies so he'd drop his guard.

Silently, I shook my head.

That seemed to catch Danny of guard, like he wasn't expecting it to come from the whoever I was to him that day. His shock only lasted a few seconds, though, before anger grew on his face again. "Then what are you still doing here? Leave!"

I just remained silent, staring at my hands and trying not to cry as Danny yelled at me.

"I said leave!" He screamed, and my tears broke free. I started to cry, but that only seemed to anger him more. The constraints on him seemed to do no good as he shifted his arms and legs into the fins he swam with, the band's slipping right off of him. He pulled the tubes out of him and off of his face, feeling no pain from his wounds as the medication dripping from his iv continued to flow through his blood, pulling the pain to be nonexistent.

I stayed where I was, afraid to move in case he'd target his unruly anger at me. But again, his anger only increased.

Shifting back to full human, Danny lumbered over to me. "Get up." He growled. I remained seated, having been told by the spirits to react to his more violent episodes as little as possible. "I said get up!"

In a blur of motion he had me by my hair, forcing me to my feet as he pulled me up from my chair, making me cry out in pain. But for once Danny didn't seem to care about my pain, and especially didn't care that he was the one causing it. This started to scare me, because this was already becoming the most violent of his episodes. He had never hurt me during any of his other episodes, and I could tell already that it was just going to get worse.

Danny continued to pull on my hair till I had to get on the chair to be eye level with him, crying as he continued to pull up on my hair. His deep blue eyes were narrowed, almost as if he was trying to tell if my current role really suited someone like me. It seemed as if his brain was trying to give him new memories of me at that moment, but he refused to accept them, whatever they were. And in that moment of hesitation, I had tried to escape his grasp, which was the worst decision I could have made then.

Danny grew furious once more, and balled up his other fist, the one not grabbing my hair. He pulled it back, and the next thing I knew pain flared up in my lower ribs, knocking the air out of my lungs. I let out another cry of pain, almost screaming he had hit me with such force, and I began to bawl. Danny didn't seem to like my tears, and he growled, releasing my hair and letting me fall to the ground, gasping as I clutched my side and tried to catch my breath. He clutched at his own hair before he began to pace, muttering and growling at himself, periodically hitting himself as he did.

After I had caught my breath, Danny was still pacing and hitting himself, still pulling at his hair as he did. He dug his fingers deep into his biceps,piercing the skin and causing blood to well up beneath his finger tips before creating small rivers down his arms. I knew I should have left him like that, like the spirits had told me to. I should have left him to get the spirits to put him under sedation. But I couldn't leave him like that. I couldn't leave him to hurt himself, because what if he took it a step further than just hurting himself? I didn't know what I would do if he killed himself...

"Danny..." I croaked out. He didn't hear me, and I stood. "Danny, stop it." Still no response.

I crossed the room to where he was pacing, and rested a hand on his arm. Immediately he turned on me, wrapping his hands around my throat and bringing me down, slamming me into the ground. He straddled me, pressing his thumbs down on my air track as he pinned me to the ground. I instantly grew fearful as I looked into his eyes, knowing well as soon as I looked into them that he was really going to try and kill me. He was no longer Danny. He wasn't the Danny that I had fallen in love with that day. He was violent. Out of control. And he wasn't afraid to kill.

I began to struggle, but his hands only grew tighter around my throat as I gasped for air, trying to get it to my lungs but unable to. I tried clawing desperately at his hands with my own, tried digging my nails into his arms to get him to let go, but he never registered the pain. He kept pressing, trying to suffocate me, trying to kill one of Cyrils minions, and he seemed or be enjoying it, too. His deep blue eyes shone with a thrill for power beneath the anger that had taken over them. He had a wide grin on his face as he kept his hands wrapped securely around my throat. Everything about it him at that instant shone with an uncharacteristic, murderous joy as he attempted to take my life.

As a black haze began to cloud my vision, as Thanatos began preparations to use his scythe and cut my life line tot make me to the Underworld for judgement, the spirits finally came. They were armed with sedations, readying them to inject Danny with.

He saw them coming, saw them fling the door open, and his hold on me released. He stood, shouting something I couldn't understand as I gasped for breath, gulping air greedily to fill my lungs. The black fog lifted from my vision, letting me see a clear picture of the floor in front of me as I coughed and gasped for air, finally hearing what Danny was shouting.

"Where's Cyril?" He screamed to the spirits. "Tell me where Cyril is! I'm going to kill that son of a bitch right now. Take me to Cyril!" I assumed he had noticed the needles in the spirits hands, because he began to throw things at them. "Stay away! I want to see Cyril! Bring him here now! Let go of me! Don't touch me! What are y-!"

He went silent, and the sound of his body crumbling to the floor sounded, making me wince as I continued to try and catch my breath. I rubbed my throat with my right hand as I did, listening as the spirits hauled Danny back up onto the bed and reattached all of his tubes. My left hand moved of its own accord, propping me up for a better advantage to get air into my lungs, and something on it flashed. I looked to it, spotting the ring Danny had given me as a promise ring to marry me in the future wrapped around my ring finger, and I began to cry again. The spirits came to check on me, but I told them off, saying that I was fine as I continued to cry, still staring at the ring.

 _Oh, Danny. What's happened to you? What happened to the Danny I fell in love with those months back, in the middle of summer? What happened to him? Is he still even there, or is this the new you?_

I looked towards him, then. Looked towards his form, which was now sleeping peacefully upon his bed, the anger in him gone. _I need to stay hopeful. I can't let this ruin us. I'm going to stay here, with you, even if you try to kill me again. I need to keep up hope. I need to believe that you will return to normal. I need to believe that, for us. I need to..._

I started to cry harder as I thought those words, wondering when Danny would ever return to me, and if it would ever be soon enough.

 **...**

 **Yeah. Bet ya didn't expect THAT for a first chapter, huh? XD**


	2. Chapter 2

The next day was one of the good days, when he'd smile and laugh with me. But that day I wasn't even going to attempt to smile for Danny. My heart still hurt, still ached at the thought that he would ever hurt me intentionally. I knew yesterday wasn't really him, but it was still his face appearing before my eyes, it was still his hands wrapped around my throat, it was still Danny trying to strangle me. Even if it wasn't really him, it still was. And I couldn't get that out of my mind as he talked, still feeling his hands around my throat, in place of where the purple, blue, and green bruises were where his fingers would fit perfectly.

So I listened as he talked to me, hiding the difficulty I was having with breathing from him. He didn't seem to notice my lack of response until about an hour after he had been talking about what we were going to do when he got out of the camps infirmary. He looked at me with concern in his deep blue eyes, the same deep blue eyes that just yesterday had held a level of anger so high nothing could ever compare to it.

"Ty?" Danny asked as I silently twisted the promise ring he had given me on my finger. I didn't respond to him. "Love, what's wrong? Did I say something wrong? Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine." I managed to squeeze out of my throat. A wheeze accompanied my words, and Danny's concern only grew.

"Ty, you aren't fine. Tell me what's wrong. Please."

I turned my head away from him, remaining silent, letting him see the bruises on my neck. Danny went silent as he looked at them, his mind evaluating what he was seeing in front of him. He was silent for several long minutes before he spoke again, voice no more than a whisper.

"That wasn't Cyril, was it?" He asked. "He would have killed you if he had gotten his hands around you. That was me, wasn't it?" He didn't seem to need an answer from me to know the answer to his question. He began to silently cry where he was sitting propped up on his bed. "Ty, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Once Danny started to cry, I couldn't help but to join him as my own tears slid down my face. We cried separately for a few minutes until Danny finally spoke again. "Ty... love, can yo-you come here, pl-please?" I nodded and stood up, holding my side where he had hit me yesterday as I did. I made my way over to his bed, and he grabbed my hand gently, tugging it a little, telling me to climb in with him. I did, still crying as I curled up into his side. Danny wrapped both of his arms around me, pulling me close to him as I cried, him still crying as well.

"I'm so sorry, Ty. I don't even remember doing that... I'm so sorry..." He ran a hand through my tight curls, pulling them away from his face as he pressed his lips to my forehead. "You know I didn't mean to, right? That if I had known what I was doing, I wouldn't have hurt you? You know that, right, love?"

His voice sounded pleading, as if he was asking for me to forgive him for trying to kill me. And in part, I had. I had forgiven him, because I knew that the Danny trying to kill me wasn't really Danny, that it was some dark, twisted version of him as he had tried to make sense of the world around. I had forgiven him for that. But in another part, I hadn't. I hadn't forgiven him. Somewhere in my mind, I kept thinking... what if he really did want to kill me? What if his love is fake, and this is just Danny's way to lure in prey to kill them? What if I was really his target, and this whole thing with Cyril was just an act? What if Danny _was_ Cyril, if Danny was the leader of the half-monsters, and had told Cyril to beat him up to make me believe that he was attacked, and to lead me to hate the wrong person, and really, Cyril was the victim in all of this? I couldn't help but to think... What if that was the reality I was living in?

"Ty?" Danny croaked out when I didn't respond. He sounded desperate, pleading. "You know that, right? You know I'd never dream of hurting you, right? I'd never even _think_ of hurting you. You know that, right? Come on, love. You have to know this. _Please._ Answer me, Ty."

I couldn't help as the doubt of his love grew in my mind at his desperate pleading, and I shook my head. Danny's breath hitched in his throat. "Love... Ty... Please..." He tried to hold me closer to him as he began to cry more, but I didn't let him. I pushed myself out of his arms as I struggled to breath through my constricted throat, trying to breath like I had been the day before. I felt his fingers around my throat once more, constricting my airway again. I reached my hands up, trying to pry his fingers away again, but they weren't there. But it felt like they were, and I kept trying to get them away, still struggling to breath. I was able to get more air into my lungs than I had been yesterday, but I was still struggling.

Danny seemed to begin to panic as I began to cough and wheeze, kneeling on the ground as I continued to struggle. "Ty, love. What's wrong. Please, answer me. Please!"

I tried to, but I couldn't. I couldn't get anything out of my lungs, or into them, for that matter. Danny's panic seemed to rise, and he pulled his tubes out again, dropping from the bed to scoop me into his arms, gasping as he did. He carried me in his arms, rushing out of the room and in tears, calling for help. Spirits met him in the hallway, grabbing me from him and holding him back as they carried me to another room and he tried to follow. He struggled against the spirits before collapsing onto the ground, sobbing, and that was the last I had seen of Danny that day as he vanished around the frame of a door as I was carried into a new room.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for not updating last week. I didn't have my tablet, and I dont have a computer at home to type, plus I had started school...**

 **Meh. :P I'm sure you all don't want to hear my excuses. You just want a chapter. So, my dear readers... Here is your long awaited chapter!**

 **...**

I remember waking up to see Danny crying next to my bed. His I.V was on wheels next to him for easy transportation so he could remain by my bed in my new room in the medical building, sleeping on the floor beside it instead of on the recliner chair in the corner. Apparently he had been doing that for quite some time, most of which I don't even remember. Apparently I had been in a medical induced coma after the spirits had perform surgery on my chest. But when they had tried to wake me up, I didn't. For a week longer I continued to sleep, not really sleeping, because I don't even remember being in the dream world.

But when I had finally woken up, the first thing I saw was Danny sitting on the floor, his head pressed to my bed and seemingly asleep. My chest hurt like hell, or at least I'm sure it would have if I didn't have any pain killers dripping into my blood, lowering the pain to a dull throb. My muscles were stiff, and I couldn't help the groan that escaped me as I shifted my position to get a better view of Danny. Immediately his head flew up, his deep blue eyes wide as he looked around the room to try and locate what had made the noise. A couple moments later, his eyes landed on me, and when he noticed me looking at him, I saw tears spring into his eyes. Danny stood from where he was, wobbling a bit as he steadied himself, before he threw his arms around me, squeezing me as he buried his face in my neck and cried.

"You're awake," He cried happily as I hesitantly wrapped my arms around him as well. "I thought you'd never wake up." He began to spew out sentences describing how happy he was that I was awake, and I soon stopped him.

"Of course I'm awake, Danny." I told him after I had managed to stop his pointless rambling of joy. "Why wouldn't I be awake?" My voice sounded weird, like it wasn't mine, and it hurt my throat to speak. "What happened to make me not wake up?"

Danny let in a shuddering breath before removing his face from my shoulder. He wiped at his tears. "After... after you had started gasping and holding your throat, I had picked you up and taken you to the spirits. After they took you from me and had taken you to another room, I asked them what was wrong with you and why you couldn't breath, and they told me it was because of a paradoxic concave, I think they said." He wiped at his eyes as he began to cry again, and I waited silently for him to continue. After awhile, he did, explaining to me what a "paradoxic concave" was. "Instead of your chest going out when you breathed in, it went in, caving on itself." He swallowed thickly. "I don't know. I can't really explain it. But they told me... Th-they told me that that had happened because something had hit you hard and fast there, and I-I knew it was me that had done that to you, because I'm the only person- no. The only _monster_ whose hit you." He spat out the word "monster" with venom after he had corrected himself, and it hurt me to see that he viewed himself as a monster now, and he seemed to hate himself for it.

"Danny... You aren't a monster..." I murmured. Though I still wasn't sure if his love for me was genuine, I still didn't want to hear him call himself a monster.

"Yes I am!" He argued, wiping furiously at his eyes. "I've tried to kill you, Ty! I tried to strangle you for reasons I don't even know, and I almost killed you anyways by making your chest cave in on itself! I have _hurt_ you, Ty. _Intentionally hurt you._ Normal people don't _hurt_ the ones they love. Gods... I almost killed you _twice_ in only a day. I made you not love me anymore. I made you _afraid_ of me. Normal people aren't supposed to do that! I'm a monster!"

I grew furious at what he said, and I responded with equal venom as when he had called himself a monster the first time. "Danny, stop assuming things that I've never said just because of something I did!" He flinched when I yelled at him, and he quickly averted his gaze. He opened his mouth to try and speak, but I was too furious to allow him to. "I have _never_ said that I don't love you anymore. Never! I never _told you_ that I'm afraid of you! You're just _assuming_ these things so you can _prove_ how much of a fucking monster you are! And you know what? You _assuming_ those things goes to prove how much of one you really are. And you're right! You _are_ a monster."

Danny let out a whimper at that, and tried to speak once more, but, again, I didn't let him.

"But you're only a monster to _yourself."_ I continued. "You keep on putting yourself down and letting others put you down that you never give yourself the chance to become something _more_ than a monster. And what you did to me was out of your control. You made me fear the part of you that expresses more anger than I've ever seen coming from you. But I am _not_ afraid of _you_ , because _that wasn't you_ trying to kill me. That was out of your control. But this? You putting yourself down and calling yourself a _monster_? That's in your control right now, yet you are doing that. And you want to know something? That's making me love you less because by you calling yourself a monster... When you have it in your mind that you really _are_ a monster, then you might start doing things that monsters do. And you want to know something else? When you call yourself a _monster_ , that makes me _hate_ you each time you do, because each time you do, you put yourself down more and more each time, and become more and more angry at yourself that I start to need to question each move you're going to make! For all _I_ know, you can be thinking about committing suicide right now so that you'd stop being a monster and hurting me! But everything you've said about yourself is hurting me! What do you want me to do, Danny? Do you want me to _fight_ with you to prove how much of a goddamn _monster_ you are? Is _that_ what you're trying to get me to do? Is there something you want me to say? Do you want me to _agree_ with you that I think that you're a monster? If that's the case, then _leave_. Leave me alone. Leave my room. I don't want to see you again."

Danny whitened at my words, and he quickly shook his head, tears in his deep blue eyes again. "N-no. Love. That's not what I want. I don't want to leave you. I don't wa-"

"I said _leave_." I growled lowly, though I'm not sure why. I wanted him to stay with me, to show me he cared for me and that it wasn't all an act like I had thought before my "paradoxic concave" or whatever. I furiously pulled with his promise ring, trying to get it off my finger before I was finally able to. Once it was off, I shoved it at him. "And take your damn promise with you. I don't want it anymore."

Danny fumbled with it for awhile, still stark white. "Ty, _please_." He begged, his tears beginning to fall. "I don't _want_ this to happen. I want us to stay together. _Please_ , love. I want us to get married in the future, and be happy, and-"

"Danny, you're a _monster._ And I'm a demigod. _Demigods. Don't. Marry._ _Monsters_. We _kill_ them. And since you're convinced that you're a monster all of a sudden, _I don't want to marry you_. Now _leave_ before I get up and _make you_ leave."

Danny's tears vanished at what I had said, his face portraying a shock so great no other emotion could escape. But after awhile his shock quickly morphed to anger, and he stormed out of my room, shouting furiously behind him at how I "never truly loved him", and how I "led him to believe that I did", to which I shouted like in response at his back before he angrily slammed the door shut behind him, me still shouting at his back.

 **...**

 **Meh... .-. XP**


	4. Chapter 4

A few days later Danny was back in my room, begging me to take him back. But I refused. I was still furious at him for calling himself a monster. I kept calling him a monster, too. I kept yelling at him, calling him the worst monster that I had ever met. I yelled at him, screaming that I hated him. My chest ached greatly when I did, the spirits having taken me off the pain dulling medication the day I wad woken up. Danny was healed completely, though he told me he was still having those episodes and days where he would forget. He told me through the door that those days didn't matter, that on those days he still loved me, and he continued to beg for me to take him back.

But still I refused.

He continued to beg, saying that he was sorry for calling himself a monster and that he didn't think of himself as one anymore. But I knew that was a lie. I could tell by the way his voice faltered that he did still think he was a monster. He was lying to me about not thinking of himself as a monster, and I hated it. So I continued to refuse his apologies, so much so that I made him cry in his desperation.

" _Please_ , love," he begged. I could hear the pain in his voice, the desperation and the love he still felt for me. But I didn't want to hear it. I wanted him to go away. I wanted him to stay away forever. Forever because he had called himself a monster. Forever because he had hurt me, strangled me. Forever because I still wasn't sure if he was the leader of the half-monsters or not. Forever because….

Because I didn't want to be attached.

I didn't want to seem like that desperate girl looking for love who'd accept back the man who had hurt her just to feel loved. I didn't want to be that girl who feared or doubted the love of the man who had hurt her. I didn't want to be the girl that men used to please themselves because she was too weak to say "no" to the first one who had hurt her.

But…

I also didn't want to be hurt. I didn't want to see Danny hurt. I didn't want to ignore the love I still felt for him. I didn't want to cry alone when the man I still loved could cry with me. I didn't want to yell and scream and hurt the man I still loved.

I didn't want to do any of that. I wanted him back. I wanted him to hold me again, and tell me he was sorry. I wanted his promise back. I wanted to accept him back into my life. I wanted the comfort he always gave to me when he knew I needed it. I wanted to comfort him again, to soothe him when he cried. I wanted everything that we used to be back.

But yet I didn't.

Hesitating, I called him in. His crying and begging stopped, and I heard him sniff, picturing him wiping the tears away from those deep blue eyes that I had fallen in love with, that I still loved now. When he opened the door, I saw those same deep blue eyes, puffy from his crying and a little red at the corners from his nights of no sleep. He had dark bags under his eyes from his nights of no sleep as well, all spent out my medical room door.

Before I could speak, Danny spoke first. "I'm sorry, Ty. I'm sorry I c-called myself a-a monster, and that I hurt you and yelled at you and didn't fight for you sooner. I'm sorry. I-"

I silenced him, feeling ever the more guilty about the decision I had come to and was about to voice the more he spoke. "Danny…. This… Us…. It's not working out." I started. He whitened, color draining from his face.

"Wh-what do you mean, love?" He stuttered.

I bit my lip. "I mean… I think we just need to take a break for a while. Go back to just being friends. I've hurt too much every time we argued while we were still together that… I don't know if I can do that again. But… I'd like us to still be friends, if that's okay with you."

I saw his eyes water again, and he bit his lip, looking away from me as he nodded. "I… I understand, love. We can be friends…" He slipped the ring he had gotten me into his pocket, wiping at his eyes.

My heart broke when he did that, and when he called me "love". But I didn't voice that to him. Instead, I continued. "And… that means no more calling me 'love'. No more kisses, no more 'I love you''s, no more of that stuff. No holding hands, no cuddling…."

I saw my words break him more and more with each word I said, and I watched as tears slid down his cheeks, me trying to keep back my own. I didn't want to do this, but I had to. I had to show Danny how much he had hurt me while giving us both a break to think over some things as well. So I continued.

"Though… Maybe… One day… We can start a new. If all things go well, with us just being friends, then…. Maybe… maybe we can become more than friends again. Okay?"

He nodded, sniffing and wiping at his eyes. "O-okay." He forced a small smile at me. "Gotta keep up hope, r-right?"

I bit my lip and nodded. "Right…" I murmured, looking away from him.

Danny sniffed a few more times before sighing. "I should leave you, now… I'll… um… Come in some other time… Think over some things…"

And with that he left, and my tears finally escaped me.

...

 **Mmmhm. :3 There's a reason why this one isn't a romance genre. XP**


	5. Chapter 5

Two days later Danny was back in my room with news about his stay in the medical building. He was all grins and joy, and a childish excitement was dancing in his tone as he spoke to me. We talked for a few hours before he finally told me what he wanted to tell me, and I couldn't help but to grin as well while he spoke.

"The spirits have finally figured out what's wrong with me, Ty!" He had exclaimed suddenly after a long pause in our conversation.

I blinked, processing his words before I grinned. "Really? What was it?"

Danny had begun pacing with his new found energy. "Well, when Cyril had beat me up, apparently he had hit my head so hard it rewired the hippocampus region of my brain, which pertains to memory, and is kind of ironic considering my dad is a hippocampus, and since I have the worst memory imaginable." I couldn't help but to giggle at that, and Danny grinned. "So that got all messed up in my head, pressing up against my cerebellum or something like that, which I don't remember what that did. They showed me this huge diagram of the brain and explained what each part did and how it related to my condition, but I don't even remember an eighth of what they had said, especially since they used a whole bunch of medical words and stuff. So, anyways! That happened, and other stuff happened, and something else happened-"

"Wow. That… That's very descriptive, Danny." I interrupted sarcastically. "Thanks for the info. I know _exactly_ what happened."

He heard my sarcasm, but didn't answer it verbally, grinning more instead. "You're welcome. Anyways, so all that stuff happened, causing amnesia, but my monster half _knew_ I could remember everything, so it kept coming up with new memories in its place with the help of the hippocampus region of my brain, and so I kept getting new memories every day." He stopped pacing and looked at me, his deep blue eyes full of excitement. "It was _way_ more confusing when they explained it to me. I just gave you the answer I heard in their seven hour long explanation."

"So are you having surgery done to fix it?" I asked, and he nodded vigorously.

"Yes!"

"Really? When?"

"Tomorrow!" He exclaimed. "At noon! And after that, I'm going to be back to normal! I'm going to remember everything that I used to be able to recall before Cyril beat me up. A few things might be foggy, they told me, but, otherwise, I'm going to be back to normal!"

The next thing I knew I was standing in front of Danny, my lips pressed to his. I knew I shouldn't have done it. I just… I couldn't help it. I was just so excited when Danny had told me the spirits had finally figured out what was wrong with him that I couldn't help doing what I did. I was just too excited not to. I was finally going to get the original Danny back, the Danny I had fallen in love with, and still loved, even with the new rules I had put on our relationship. I was finally going to get _my_ Danny back, and because of that, I couldn't help it. I didn't mean to. I just…

Danny's arms wrapped tighter around my waist as he pulled me ever so closer to him, deepening the kiss and lifting me up so my feet were off the ground, like he always had done when our relationship was more than just the friends I had made us become two days ago. There was such joy in the way he kissed me, with the passion and love he still had and felt for me expressed in the one, accidental kiss, that it took everything in me to break it apart, leaving him just as confused as I was at that moment.

"Love?" he breathed, out of breath from the intensity of the kiss. "What's wrong?"

I waited until I had caught my breath, shaking my head with tears in my eyes. "I…. I-I'm sorry, Danny." I choked out. "I-I didn't mean to. I-"

"It's okay, Ty." Danny murmured, though I could tell it wasn't okay for him. I could tell that the kiss had hurt him, that he wanted to kiss me again, and that he wanted us to become more again. But I still didn't want that. I still wasn't ready for that. "I know you didn't mean anything. You were just excited."

He rubbed his nose against my cheek affectionately before slowly setting me down. He removed his arms from around me, shoving them into his pockets. I sniffed, wiping at my eyes, trying not to cry. Danny bit his lip. "I… I'll just leave for now. I'll come back before my surgery." He murmured before leaving the room, leaving me once more to be torn between my flurry of emotions.


	6. Chapter 6

Danny didn't visit me like he had promised. He didn't show back up in my room. For a second I had thought because the surgery had put him into a coma, or maybe even worse, and that made me cry, because I still loved him, but I had refused to tell him that the day I had kissed him, the day he had told me he was having surgery to fix the problem in his brain. It took me several days to figure out that he had been released, and was working on battle training.

I had to have surgery again, because one of my ribs, which had broken during the paradoxic concave, had broke again, and had caused another concave, and was confined to the infirmary for an additional two weeks, two weeks of which Danny never visited. Two weeks that, during it, everybody who had school had already been gone for a month, and Cyril had attempted to take over camp. Zavid pushed him back, with the help of Danny and a few other half monsters under Cyrils command who didn't agree with the beast, and had saved the camp from terror. Cyril had then fled, leaving the half monsters. Those who had tried to go after Cyril to rejoin him, Zavid had quickly marked them so that none could get within a mile of each other without immense pain.

Danny had become a hero of the camp, but he had gotten hurt again. But it wasn't too bad. Nothing like before. He only had to be checked real quick by the spirits before he was released again. I had seen him pass my room, but he didn't even give it or me a glance, walking right past and bringing tears to my eyes.

When I had started to cry, his footsteps had faltered, stopping for awhile before they continued back to my room. Before I could see him again, he stopped again, hesitating once more before turning back around and continuing to the exit of the Medical Building, hurting me more and making me cry even more. But he didn't seem to care anymore. He didn't seem to want to be my friend anymore. Danny, the man I still loved, didn't want to keep up hope for us anymore.

And it made me regret everything I had ever said or done.

It made me want to curl up and never look outside again. It made me want to slowly starve myself until I died. It made me want to take one of the needles just four doors over and inject myself with all the medicine this building held. I wanted to die, because I had hurt Danny, and had pushed him away forever. I wanted to die, because I had been foolish enough to love, and even more of an idiot to push away the one I loved. I just wanted nothing more to die at that moment, the moment where it was clear to me that nobody would care it I died, so I reached over to my IV, and turned the knob up, letting more of the intense painkillers drip into my blood as I curled up and wished for it to take me soon.

;*;*;*;*;

The spirits told me I had depression. They told me that I had to take the pills, the green ones in the big bottle, so that I could be healthy.

But I didn't want to be "healthy". I was fine how I was. I wanted to die. Danny didn't care. Nobody cared. _I_ didn't care. I wanted to be depressed. I wanted to be the cause of my own fall. I wanted everything to melt away in a single moment so I could find my mom and tell her how sorry I was for saying what I said before she died. She cared. She always cared. Nobody that was still alive cared for me anymore, and nobody would. I was weak. I was hurt. I couldn't fight. I couldn't do anything everyone expected me to be able to do. Nobody needed me. Nobody wanted me. Nobody cared. the man I still loved, even after pushing him away, didn't love me anymore.

I couldn't be happy again. I had broken myself. I had made myself depressed. I was the reason why everything in my life went wrong. I wanted nothing more than to have Danny's hands wrapped around my throat again so that the pain I felt in my heart could be made physical. I wanted him to be the one to kill me, but that couldn't happen, because he wouldn't even look at me.

The spirits didn't trust me with the IV anymore. Every hour, on the hour, they gave me a pill for the pain instead. They took everything out of my room except for the bed, because they thought that I was going to use them to try and take my life once more. And they were right. That _was_ what I was going to do. And I was going to go to the room next to mine and do that, too, but they had locked my door. I became a prisoner in my new room, unable to leave, but people able to enter.

;*;*;*;*;

It took a week for one of those people to be Danny. He had found me, crying in the corner of my room, my frame skeletal and a full plate of food sitting next to me, untouched just like the other ones before it. He tried to comfort me, tried to pull me out of the corner, but I just kept crying, sticking to my corner firmly. His patience with e didn't waver, though he did give up on trying to pull me out of my corner. Instead, he sat down beside me and pulled me into his lap, letting me cry into him. He remained silent as he did, uttering not a single word as he rubbed my back soothingly, trying to get me to calm down. He gave my forehead a small, tender kiss, breaking the rules I had made, but I didn't care. I didn't care anymore. I didn't care about anything anymore. I didn't care if he still loved me, because I still wanted to die. And he knew this, so he stayed with me, holding me close to him as I cried and he held back his own tears. He kept whispering to me that he still loved me.

After awhile, he began to whisper things to me. He kept whispering to me how much he still loved me, and that he wished that I wouldn't cry, that I wouldn't hurt enough to want to take my life. He whispered to me that he wanted me to be happy, that if I wasn't happy, he felt dead, because I wouldn't allow him to help me be happy.

But I didn't care.

I just wanted to cry until I died in Danny's arms. I wanted to die knowing he still loved me, so that I could love him more in the Underworld. I wanted him to always love me so that I could say to someone down there that I had made a difference in someone's life when I had still been alive. I wanted him to keep loving me, even while I cried in his arms. I wanted him to keep loving me every time I told him I wanted to die. I wanted him to tell me he would keep loving me forever and always, like he always had when we were still together. And he did.

He kept telling me he loved me every time I asked if he was sure he did. He kept telling me to keep fighting through each day that I wanted to be my last. He told me to fight through each day so that on each day that I fought through he could tell me just how much he loved me. He made me feel loved again, that day. He made me feel needed, like he still wanted me in his life, like he was always able to do when I was sad. And, finally, eventually, after days of repetition, I was finally able to make myself take the pill, the green one in the big bottle that the spirits had given me, telling me I had depression. I was finally able to take it, and I finally wanted to be healthy again.


	7. Chapter 7

"You know I love you, right?" Danny murmured as he nuzzled my cheek, his arm wrapped around my waist and holding me close as he rested with me on my new bed in the Medical Building.

I nodded mutely, picking at the sheets as I waited for the green pill to take its effects for the day. I felt hollow until it did, unable to respond to anything, even to Danny as he talked to me. And he knew this, so he did all the talking until I was able to communicate with him.

He gave my cheek a kiss. "I fought Cyril to keep you safe," he continued. "He was going to hurt you. He was going to kill all of the campers staying during the school year. I couldn't let him do that, so I told Zavid his plans. I fought Cyril to keep you safe. You know that, right?"

The pill still hadn't taken its effects, and yet I was able to smile, even if just a little. Danny really and truly loved me if he was willing to risk his life for me, if he was willing to fight the half minotaur brute that had terrorized his life for eleven years. If Danny was willing to do that, to keep _me_ safe...

Danny saw my smile, and he nuzzled my cheek again, letting out a happy horse-like whinny. The noise made my smile widen a little more. I wanted to giggle, too, but I couldn't. I still wasn't well enough to do that without the pill. So a smile was the best thing I could do. And that was a lot, for me. Going a month without a smile, without even a thought of happiness...

I was broken. But I was getting better, now, with Danny's help.

"I love you so much, Ty." He murmured again, even though I still haven't said it back to him since I began taking the pill a week ago. But he kept telling me that he loved me each day I fought through, like he had told me he would. "I don't know what I'd do without you. When the spirits told me you had..." Pain entered his voice and he paused for awhile before letting in a shuddering breath and continuing. "When the spirits had told me that you had... that you had tried to kill yourself and had almost succeeded, I was about to, too. I didn't want to live without you in my life. And it would have been all my fault... I didn't talk to you that day, love. It was my fault you wanted to kill yourself."

Something wet landed on my cheek, and Danny buried his his face in my neck as he began to cry.

"I'm so sorry, love. I didn't mean to make you so sad. I'm so sorry..." He stopped talking when he began to sob uncontrollably.

I bit my lip, almost crying when he bean to cry. But I stopped myself before I could. Instead, I turned in Danny's arms and wiped away his tears from his smooth, recently shaved cheeks. He sniffed as I did, trying to calm himself down. I hesitated before giving his lips a small kiss, and he smiled softly, returning it. I couldn't help but to smile slightly as well, and I gave him another small kiss.

"I love you, Danny." I murmured. The green pill still hadn't taken effect, yet I was still able to speak. It still had ten minutes before it was completely in my system, yet I was still able to feel a tiny bit of happiness, enough to tell him what I've wanted to tell him since we became just friends.

And that made him smile widely, his tears forgotten. It made him do _more_ than smile. It made him grin, the first grin he had worn since he had heard about my attempt at taking my own life. Me saying _I love you, Danny_ made him happier, and that made me happier, even though the pill hadn't taken hold of me yet.

"I love you, too, Ty." He murmured happily, letting me wipe away the rest of his tears. When I was done wiping away his tears, he pulled me ever so closer to him before pressing his lips to mine.

I closed my eyes and gently kissed him back, a greater spark of happiness igniting in my chest. By this time, the pill would have taken effect. But it wasn't strong enough to create this form of happiness in me that I was feeling while we kissed. I was able to feel joy, because he had said it back, and it ignited a fire of happiness inside of me. And that fire of joy, the ffirst in a month, was all I wanted to feel at the moment.

So I continued to kiss him and eventually Danny deepened the kiss. He turned me more in his arms so that neither of us had to strain while we kissed. He turned me in his arms more before rolling to the side so I was on top of him. We continued to kiss in the new position until we had to break for air, and when we did, my broad smile felt like a grin on my face.

Danny grinned back at me before resting his head back on my pillow. He let out a soft sigh, happy as he was before I had attempted suicide. And I was happy, too. I was finally able to say what I still felt for him. I was finally able to make us both happy. I was finally able to tell Danny that I still loved him, and he made me happier by saying it back.

I think... maybe... I was finally healing. I was finally getting better on my own, with the help of Danny, of course, and that I wouldn't need the pill anymore in a month or so, because I'd be healthy again. And that made me even happier, so I pressed my lips to Dannys once more.


	8. Chapter 8

"Danny?"

The half hippocampus looked up at me and away from my hair at the sound of his name, a small smile on his face. "Yes, my love?" He asked as he held onto the tiny braid he was doing.

"Do you still have the ring?"

His small smile widened a little at the question. "Of course I do, love. I've had no reason to get rid of it, especially since it was the last thing I had to remind me of you while we were apart."

I smiled softly at that. "So it helped you keep up hope for us?"

Danny nodded. He finished doing the small and delicate braid he was doing in my hair, letting it fall to mingle with my curls and the other random small braids he had done before uncrossing his legs. He scooted closer to me until his chest was pressed against my back before he wrapped his arms around my chest, crossing his legs again so that they were around my torso and over my own legs. Danny gave my neck a small kiss before speaking again. "It did. I wasn't prepared to let you go completely, and I'm so glad I wasn't. I finally have my Ty back. My happy, caring, loving, and most beautiful Ty. I'm so glad I didn't allow myself to stop fighting for you, love."

I couldn't help but to smile more at that. I rested my head against his chest, loving the caring warmth he radiated as he held me close to him. "I'm not entirely back to normal, Danny. I still have some recovery to make before I am."

"I know, love. But you're almost back to normal. You're off the pill! And the spirits have started to trust you with the other stuff. And you're eating normally again, you're smiling more often than not, and..." He continued to list reasons showing proof that I was in fact better.

I listened as he did, smiling softly. He was right. I _was_ almost back to normal. After months of the spirits lecturing me and putting me through many forms of therapy to help me get my mind off my overwhelming sadness and in turn helping balance out whatever neurological thing caused my depression, I was finally almost back to normal. And it was all thanks to Danny. It was only because he had kept up hope for us that I was able to go through the process of healing. It was only because he still loved me that I wanted to get better.

Danny was still talking by the time I was done thinking about how much he had helped me the past half year, and I chuckled. I turned my head and gave him a soft kiss to shut him up, and Danny did shut up, grinning madly before returning my kiss with his own little one.

"Do you have it with you?" I murmured, looking into his deep blue eyes as he gave me another soft kiss on the lips.

"Mmm... I do." Danny murmured in response, rubbing his nose against my cheek as he began to nuzzle me. "Why do you ask, love?"

I bit my lip, hesitating before speaking again. I'm not quite sure why I hesitated, but I did. Doubt of my own happiness? Doubt of Danny's love for me once more? Disbelief in something affecting our love for each other? I don't even know _why_ I hesitated, but I did. "I... I want your promise back."

He grinned and let out one of his happy horse whinnies, making me laugh. In response to my laugh, his grin widened even more, and he gave me a big, wet kiss on my cheek, earning a look of disgust from me as I wiped away the wetness. He laughed at my expression and nuzzled my other cheek as I wiped away his slobber. "Do you really want it back, love?"

Once I got all of his slobber off my cheek, I nodded. "I do."

He let out another whinny, and I giggled. Danny grinned once more and removed his legs from around me, hanging them off the edge of the bed like mine were at that moment. He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out the ring, the one with the silver and gold bands intertwined. It was simple, something anyone with the two colored wires could easily make, but it meant the world to me. It came from Danny, proof that he loved me enough to want to marry me in the future, no matter how near or far that may be.

Danny gently grabbed my left hand from where it was resting on my leg, bringing it up to his lips to kiss the top of it before slipping the ring onto my ring finger. He kissed my hand once more before letting both of ours fall, him still holding mine in his large hand. "Always know that even without the ring, you will _always_ have my promise." He murmured.

I smiled widely at that, feeling a buzz of happiness in my heart as I rested my head against his chest once more. Danny wrapped his arms back around me, and together we sat like that, enjoying each others company for the rest of the day.


	9. Chapter 9

Today was the day the spirits were going to release me from the Medical Center.

It was a week before my birthday, which was on June twenty-second. That made today June fifteenth. Danny was eagerly waiting for me outside the Medical Center, having been asked to leave as the spirits put me through a thousand more tests and questions to make sure I really would fare well outside the building without them. And so, after a few hours, they gave me the okay, as long as I promised to drop in every month or so so they could double check on everything.

Of course, I agreed, naturally, seeing no harm in them wanting to keep me healthy. And since if I didn't, they'd keep me in there for those additional months, and I had already been stuck in there for _nine_. I didn't want to need to be stuck in there for more than that! That'd just be torture. The only reason I hadn't gone insane during my stay was because of Danny. He had kept me company the entirety of it, bringing me in some of my books the day before those he wouldn't be there. He had also brought me my blanket and pillow, and my favorite stuffed turtle plushie that had been hidden away in my cabin closet, helping me become as comfortable as possible in my prison cell. He had taken care of my sanity for me, something the spirits _clearly_ had no sense in maintaining.

... Maybe they had _wanted_ me to go insane...

...

Either way...! They released me to the open again, and I was finally able to escape my prison, much to my relief. I gathered up my three books, blanket, and pillow, but not before twisting Danny's ring on my finger, making sure it was still there. Once I had assured myself that it was, I left my room, my things in hand, and headed to the door of the Medical Building.

As soon as I was outside, something scooped me up. I let out a squeak of surprise, almost losing hold on my things as Danny got me situated in his arms, grinning madly. He held me bridal style and close to his chest as he nuzzled my cheek happily. I chuckled and brought a hand up to his face, cupping underneath his jaw as I rubbed my thumb over the scar on his cheek. He smiled lovingly at me as I did that, and gave my lips a small kiss.

"I finally have you back, my love," he murmured happily. "I have all of my Ty back. My sweet, caring, wonderful love. Oh, I'm so happy!" As if the exclamation wasn't enough, he let out a happy equine whinny, making me laugh.

"Gods, Danny. You're so adorable when you make that noise. You know that, right?"

He turned unbelievably red at that, and ducked his head in slight embarrassment. "Y-yes. I think you've told me that every time I make that noise..." He turned a little more red. "I can't help it. I think it's happened more since the surgery. I just can't help it, love. I'm just _too_ happy not to." He went back to nuzzling my cheek.

I smiled widely and closed my eyes, enjoying the attention. "I know. And I love it. Just like I love everything about you. From your bashfulness, to the brave half- hippocampus who isn't afraid of anything to protect what he loves."

Danny grinned at that, and he gave my lips a small, loving kiss. "Thank you, love."

I smiled softly at the kiss and rested my head against his chest, yawning slightly. Danny chuckled when he heard my yawn, and he gave my lips another kiss. "I'll take you to your cabin now, love. You must be _exhausted_ after all the tests they did today on you."

I nodded semi- sleepily. "Yeah. Are you going to lay with me?" I asked.

Danny didn't even hesitate before nodding. "Of course, love. I did there, while you were healing, and I'm not about to stop now. I quite enjoy sleeping with you." He nuzzled my cheek some more before stopping. He turned red once more. "N-not in that s-sense, love. I-I mean l-l-like laying with you, a-a-and sleeping. N-not undressed o-or a-anything or-" He turned even more red and he buried his face in the blanket still in my hands. "Oh gods." He groaned into it.

I laughed at his embarrassment. "Don't worry, Danny. I knew exactly what you meant. You're the only one who had dug yourself that grave right there."

He let out a low groan in response to my words, and he kept his face in the blanket for awhile longer before removing it, his cheeks still a little pink. He gave me a sheepish smile, not daring to speak a word since he was still embarrassed as all heck about what he had said not too long ago, and began to walk towards my cabin, still carrying me in his arms.

Once we made it back to my cabin, Danny opened the door and carried me inside. He carried me to the most empty of the seven beds in there, since that was the bed all my stuff had been on, and laid me down in it without me even needing to ask. I smiled and got my pillow out from under the wad of blanket in my arms and put it underneath my head. Danny smiled softly at me and unraveled my blanket from around my three books, setting them on the bed table before covering me up with the blanket with the gentle care he always had with me.

Once I was covered, Danny grabbed his own pillow from where it was resting on another bed that appeared to have been slightly disturbed, maybe from Danny sleeping on it the days he hadn't slept with me in the Medical Building. He put his pillow next to mine and took off his shirt like he always did before lifting the edge of the blanket on his side. He crawled under the covers with me, getting comfortable. I waited for him to be comfortable before scooting closer to him, hoping he'd hold me.

Danny took the hint, and he chuckled. Wrapping an arm around me, the half-hippocampus pulled me closer to him till my back was pressed to his chest. He gave the back of my neck a small kiss before lightly blowing on the back of my ear, causing me to giggle and squirm like he knew it would. Danny chuckled and nuzzled my cheek before letting his head fall against his pillow.

"Good night, my love," he murmured as he yawned.

I couldn't help but to yawn, too, after he yawned. I waited until the yawn passed before speaking. "Good night, Danny." I responded, closing my eyes, and soon enough falling asleep, not realizing just how exhausted I had been till I started dreaming.


	10. Chapter 10

**Yo. :P I've just decided that this shall be the second to last chapter of this current book. :D Hope (haha. It's the title of this book... Ha... Ha... No. .-.) you all like it!**

...

"Ty? Love? Are you awake?"

I groaned as Danny's voice penetrated my sleep, adjusting myself in his arms. "I am now..." I murmured sleepily, blinking open my eyes to see Danny, propping himself up on an elbow, digging it into the bed as his other arm was wrapped securely around my waist to hold me close as we slept.

The half- hippocampus' semi- pale complexion took on a red hue to it. "Sorry, love... I didn't mean to wake you... You can go back to sleep..."

I chuckled and brought up a hand from where it was, resting beneath my head, and cupped his cheek. "It's okay, sweetie," I told him with a yawn. "I'm awake, now."

He chuckled slightly at my yawn. "Are you sure, love? You still sound asleep to me."

I rolled my eyes playfully at that. "Trust me. If I was still asleep, you'd know."

"Oh would I?" Danny asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Mmhm," I hummed, tracing his jaw lightly with my index finger, entertaining my morning ADHD. He smiled as I did, and I smiled as well, unable to help it. "Because if I was still asleep, I couldn't give you _this_." I lifted my head a little and pressed my lips to his gently.

Danny seemed to have been expecting that, and he immediately kissed me back, shifting himself so that he was hovering over me, wrapping the arm that was around my waist tighter around it. He brought up the hand that had been propping his head up to cup my lower jaw as we kissed, his thumb rubbing my cheek gently. He didn't break off the kiss till he knew I would be out of breath, on the verge of making me light-headed from the lack of air I had been able to take in between the kiss. When I almost reached te point of light-headed- ness, Danny pulled away, grinning as I tried to catch my breath, him still hovering over me, not quite out of breath as I was.

"I guess I really _would_ know whether or not you were awake, then." He chuckled. The half- monster gave my lips a final, lingering kiss before he moved himself to not be hovering above me. He sat up in my bed, which, since I was released from the Medical Building, had become _our_ bed. Since I had been released from the Medical Building four or so months ago, Danny had made it ritual for us to sleep in the same bed every night. I didn't mind it, as long as Zavid didn't mind, and as long as I continued to have no siblings on my godly side. Especially since Danny made me feel safe, knowing he had risked his life for me and much more. If the furthest he would ever be away from me every night was just a foot away, I wouldn't need to go searching for him when I woke up from a hellish nightmare, or when I was having a hard time falling asleep. If Danny and I always slept together, it would always help ease our minds when it came to the safety of the other, and kept us in each others arms.

Anyways. So Danny sat up in our bed, leaving me still semi- breathless from the kiss. I propped myself up on my elbow, much like the same position he had been in when I had woken up, save for I had a pillow beneath my arm as well, and watched as he grabbed the clean shirt he had set aside last night before going to bed, unfolded it, and slipped it on over his head.

"Where are you going?" I asked him as he stood from our bed, stretching his arms above his head like he always did every morning.

"Not _me_ , love," he responded. " _We_."

I blinked in confusion, sitting up and allowing the blanket to fall off of me so that I could stretch my arms out to the side and above my head as well. "What do you mean?"

He turned around and grinned at me. "What I mean, love, is that we're going to go on a date. You and me, outside of this camp. No Zavid, no other demigods to tell us what to do." He plopped back down onto the edge of the bed, making me and it bounce from his weight. "And since all the campers have been back for two months now and making a lot of noise _still_ , I figured you might want to keep that peace and quiet that had been left in their absence and go to Salem with me on our first official date."

I smiled warmly at that. "I would _love_ to go on a date with you, Danny. Though, in all honesty, every day I spend with you is a date all on its own." I smiled outwardly as I said my last sentence, though inwardly I was frowning, a bit annoyed at the romantic flare my personality had. My romantic lines were always so corny, so over- used and unoriginal. Sometimes, I wished that they would just go away.

Danny's grin widened at my words, and he leaned over, giving my lips a quick kiss. "How sweet, love." He chuckled before standing from the bed once more. "You should get ready, then. Wear something nice, but not _too_ nice, okay? We're also going to the park there, since you've said you had always loved those as a kid."

My warm smile widened more at what he said, touched that he had remembered that. I had told him that a year ago, on the fourth day we had known each other.

Gods. A _year_ ago. I had told that to Danny a _year_ ago, and that was just rounding it down. More like a year and a month, and I'm _still_ missing some numbers in that for the weeks and days. Wow.

Grinning madly at the thought that had gone through my head, I hopped out of bed and hurried off to my dresser to pick out clothes for the day. Danny noticed my grin, and he tilted his head.

"Love, what is it?" He asked curiously, making his way over to me to see if it was something that was near my dresser that had made me grin. I turned around and threw my arms around him.

"It's been over a year." I responded, still grinning.

Danny hesitantly wrapped his arms around me, probably thinking I had just gone mad. "A year? A year for what, love?"

"A year for _us_ , Danny. We've known each other for a _year and a month_ , and been together for practically just as long. I don't think we had been broken up long enough during the times that we _had_ been to even _equal_ that odd month hanging alone. Probably only three weeks of it, if _that_."

Now Danny was grinning like a madman, too. His loose grip around me tightened, squeezing my small frame to his larger one and just about squeezing the air out of my lungs as well. "Then that just makes this day even more important. We are _really_ late on our first date, love."

I laughed at that. "We are! And we're just going to be later to it the longer we stand here chit-chatting about how long we've been together! I gotta get ready!"

Danny chuckled lightly, and he gradually released his hold on me, still grinning. He gave the top of my head a kiss before removing his hold entirely. "Then get ready, love. We have a _big_ day ahead of us."

...

 **ONE MORE CHAPTER! *flails* :DDDDD**


	11. Chapter 11

Danny wasn't kidding when he had said he had planned us for a big day.

We did a lot of stuff. I'm not saying like one thing every hour when I say that. I mean a _lot_ of stuff every hour when I say "We did a lot of stuff". Not just walking around and viewing things "a lot of stuff"...

 _A lot of stuff_.

It started out as a normal day. Or... at least as normal as one could get for a half- god and a half- monster.

We walked to the nearest town, most of which Danny had to carry me for since I kept getting tired and my asthma kept acting up and being a complete jerk, like it tends to be. My chest had also started to ache sometime while we were walking, and when I told Danny, he had gotten tears in his eyes before scooping me into his arms, not saying a single word about it as he had continued to walk. But I knew what he had been thinking. He was thinking that it was his fault that my chest hurt and occasionally bugged me, and that he had ruined my life forever because of it, because of when he had caused me that "paradoxic concave" or whatever. He had told me so before, last month on my birthday, when we went up to the mountains for a hike, something he had been eager to do with me so I could tell him stories of the stars once more. The same thing had happened then, too, my chest hurting, and he had told me it was his fault as we took a break, holding me close to him as he cried and I caught my breath and waited for the pain to go away. He had begun blaming himself for my asthma, too, saying that it was worse now than it had been before he had punched me, breaking my bones and causing the concave. I wanted to tell him otherwise, that it wasn't his fault that these things happened, that I had always had these problems, but he seemed hellbent on it being his fault and his fault alone, breaking me as I watched him struggle with the guilt of hurting me every time he looked at me with those frustratingly hypnotic deep blue eyes of his, his sadness and guilt taking place of almost all the love he had once been able to show for me in the single look.

Anyways...

We spent awhile walking around, or more rather of him carrying me around. He seemed afraid to set me down, like if he did, someone would come and take me, or I'd leave him there alone and head back to camp or something. He had gotten to be quite paranoid about our relationship as well, ever since I had accepted him back into my life. He always seemed so cautious about what he was doing, thinking twice over what he was about to say, and then thinking again for a third and fourth time before speaking, like just a single wrong word would make me kick him out of my life again. I understood it, to some degree, but it also made me want to cry. I wanted so desperately to have my Danny back, the Danny that would speak boldly when he was confident about something, and only timidly when he wasn't. I didn't want him to baby me anymore, or always keep me in his sight. I wanted him to feel free to do what he wanted to do without worrying how I would take it, or how long he had after saying or doing that very thing before I broke up with him for good.

Gah. I keep getting off track. Sorry about that... I guess it's because what we did between the start of our day and the end of it isn't really all that important. Yeah, sure. We had fun. Danny worried about me when I tried to run and pull him towards a jewelry store and ended up tripping over my own clumsy feet and getting a good scrape on my knee. We toured the Salem Witch Museum, and he bought me an elephant plushie that I had absolutely adored from the store. But other than that? No... nothing is really important. Let's just skip to the end of the day, yeah?

Alright. End of the day... let's see... Ah!

So it was around dinner time, and I was absolutely _starving._ But Danny had said it wasn't time for dinner yet, that we absolutely could _not_ be early to the reservation he had made for us at some four and a half starred restaurant, because they had said so. We had about another hour left till then, but my hunger made me whine at him to feed me something before I died. Danny had laughed at me before taking me to the grocery store and buying me a couple of bags of teriyaki flavored dried seaweed. We left the store, found a bench to sit on, and it was there where the _real_ story begins and not just my pointless rambling.

I was eating my seaweed quietly, listening to Danny as he talked about the rest of the night he had planned for us. I got distracted by a squirrel, though, and found that I had accidentally tuned him out. I watched the squirrel as it dug around in the dirt, looking for whatever, and it took me awhile to realize that Danny had stopped talking, and had been observing my face since he had stopped, smiling softly at me. I turned red once I realized that it was me he was looking so intently at, and he chuckled.

"Gods, love," he murmured, lifting a hand and brushing some of my hair out of my face. "You're so beautiful. You know that?"

I couldn't help but to turn more red at that, and I shook my head. Danny frowned slightly in thought at that.

"Hmm... Well... you are. The most beautiful woman I've ever met, and I think it amazing how I found myself with you, happy and loving every second we're together. You know I do that, right? I think of you a lot, love. I think about what you like, and what you don't like, as well as what sort of mood you're in and when..." He chuckled again.

"Gods. I think I spend too much time trying to figure you out, love. You're just so confusing sometimes, you know? One moment you're happy as all heck, bouncing with energy, and the next you can be so far down in the dumps that I don't ever think it possible to pull you back out. And then there are those times when you say you like one thing one day, but then hate it with all your heart the next." I stuck my tongue out at him when he said that, and he laughed before continuing. "But I think that's what I love most about you. I think I love your unpredictable-ness the most about you, because you surprise me a lot, and I love every single one of them."

I wasn't sure why he was telling me all of this. I mean, he did this, sometimes,telling me things he loved most about me or our relationship on the most random of occasions. Maybe this was just one of them...

Danny was silent for a few moments before speaking again. "Ty?"

I blinked and looked up from where I was poking at my seaweed. "Hmm?" I hummed, wiping my fingers off on my shorts.

"You know how much I love you, right?" Danny asked. "That I couldn't and wouldn't even _dream_ of having any other woman by my side in the future? You know I love you that much, right?"

I nodded, humming slightly. "Of course, Danny. That's why you gave me your promise, isn't it?" I looked at the gold and silver intertwined rings on my left hands ring finger, smiling warmly.

Danny chuckled. "I guess you have a point there, love..." he mused. He cleared his throat before continuing. "And I mean it now, Ty. I mean it when I say that, that I love you with all my heart and more. I mean every forever and always I tell you, and I want you to know that I do, that I really do mean them. All of them."

His hand went to his pocket, and at first I thought he was just reaching there to make sure he had his wallet. But when I saw his hand enter his pocket and come back out with a velvety black box, my heart nearly stopped. He moved off the bench and onto one knee, kneeling in front of me as he held the box in his hands.

Tears rushed forth to my eyes, and I covered my mouth to refrain from making any noises that would dare escape otherwise as I waited for Danny to continue speaking.

The half-hippocampus let in a shuddering breath, composing himself and cooling his nerves before proceeding. "I don't care about all of the fights we have had, or how long we may have broken apart between each one. I don't care about the future fights and break ups, either. All I care about is whether or not I spend the rest of my days with you, however long or short that may be. So, Ty Winters, daughter of Hypnos. I... I wish to ask you this question, right here and right now. Um..."

Gods. Now he really looked nervous, and I was trying everything in my power to keep myself from saying anything till he asked the question. Danny seemed to freeze for a few seconds before jolting into action again, seeming to remember what he was saying and doing. He opened the box, revealing a ring lined with deep blue and crimson red gems, spread out evenly around the ring, three of each one.

"Ty Winters," he said with that bold confidence I had been wishing him to speak with for a few months now. "Daughter of Hypnos and love of my life. Would you like to make make me the world's happiest and most lucky half-monster, and marry me?"

...

 **Boom. End of book 3. B)**


	12. ANNOUNCMENT

**ATTENTION**

 **I'm currently working on revamping this story! Meaning that by or during the month of the start of the year 2017, this story will be up as a emnew/em story that will be longer, more descriptive, and overall better than the original. Taking a break from uploading EVERYTHING until then (some challenges and one shots will still be put up, though). Things to look forward to in the new versions of this story are:**

 **Fixes in grammatical errors**

 **Fixed typos**

 **Longer sentences**

 **Better sentence structures**

 **More words**

 **Less awkward endings**

 **More descriptive sentences**

 **More chapters**

 **More time and effort put into my work**

 **Yes, these changes will mean far fewer updates on everything, but only until I get into the groove of things. I won't be deleting any stories, just making the newer, fresher, cleaner versions of them into NEW stories, essentially permanently doubling my story count. The reason as to why I am doing this is because I feel my stories are not satisfactory length, and they lack depressingly in terms of vivid details and imagery. I'm hoping any of you guys who are still following this story will get the alert and be on the look out for its newer, better version on my profile.**

 **Thank you, and adieu.**

 **Ty**

 **P.S. NEVER USE SHIFTenter IN FFN DOCS. IT RUINS THE WHOLE THING**


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